Hu Qianyue fell ill, even seriously ill. She lay unconscious on the bed and her face was almost as pale as a dead man. If her chest had not heaved slightly, Mo Xuetong would have thought that she was dead. Feng Yuran did not allow her to come, afraid that Hu Qianyue’s fever would infect her.
However, Mo Xuetong insisted on coming. Hu Qianyue had not yet left King Xuan’s Manor, so she, the hostess, had to care about her. She must not let anyone think that she, Consort Xuan, treated the envoys of the Southern Barbarian Lands too badly. She had never come to see her on the pretext of illness before, but now, since she could get up, she had to come to visit her.
Originally, Hu Qianyue would leave King Xuan’s Manor today, and then would be married into King Yan’s Manor on a nice day in a few days. As she would not be the legal wife of King Yan, a few tables for the wedding banquet would suffice. After that, Princess Caifeng’s wedding ceremony would be the main event. However, the imperial physician had said that Hu Qianyue’s illness would be a little troublesome.
It would be good enough that she could recover in half a month. First of all, she had to take care of her body first and it depended on what was going on with her body.
Since she was in such a bad condition, of course, she could not move anymore. As for the wedding, it would depend on Hu Qianyue’s condition. Others could not force her to move into King Yan’s Manor regardless of her health. Crown Prince Xieyue also took this opportunity to demand to move in a few days.
“How did your mise fall ill?” Mo Xuetong asked the maidservant standing in front of the bed.
“She was fine when she came back yesterday, and she slept well. When I got up this morning, I found that miss was so sick that she was unconscious. I don’t know if it was because the window was not closed last night!”
Mo Xuetong’s gaze landed on the tightly shut window as she asked thoughtfully, “The window wasn’t closed at night?”
The wind of yesterday did not seem to be very strong. Even if the window was open during her sleep, Hu Qianyue should not be as seriously ill as she was. If she had not known that Hu Qianyue was good at martial arts, Mo Xuetong would have thought that she was a delicate young lady with a weak body and believed what the maidservant had said.
“When miss started to sleep, the window was closed. I remember clearly. Miss has been weak. It may not be a big deal to open the window at this time, but miss can’t bear it. So I especially closed the window. But when I came here today, the window was open.” The maidservant sobbed and looked anxious.
But she had cleared to Mo Xuetong’s doubts in her words.
Mo Xuetong didn’t expect that Hu Qianyue’s maidservant was scheming either, and she looked a little familiar. It turned out that she was the maidservant who helped Hu Qianyue deal with things when they first met. She seemed to be Hu Qianyue’s trusted subordinate.
“What’s your name?” Mo Xuetong asked.
The maidservant was excited in talking when Mo Xuetong suddenly changed the topic. She could not react for a moment. Staring at Mo Xuetong with wide eyes in shock for a while, she came back to her senses and hurriedly replied, “My name is Shiqing.”
“Shiqing, take good care of your mistress here. If you need anything, just tell Aunt Xianglan. You don’t have to be too polite in King Xuan’s Manor. You should put your mistress’ body first. It’s a matter of life for a girl to have coldness in her body. Don’t let her really hurt her body. Otherwise, in the future…”
Mo Xuetong stated softly. It seemed to be a reminder, but in fact, it was a warning.
No matter how elaborate the maidservant’s lie was, she could not fool Mo Xuetong who had known that Hu Qianyue was physically strong. Furthermore, she had asked Aunt Xianglan when she came, and was told that Hu Qianyue had asked for a few buckets of cold water last night. It was said that Miss Hu had asked someone to clean the furniture in the room and the things they were going to take away.
The night before they was about to move, she wanted to clean these things. Shouldn’t they clean them after they were moved out and settled down?
There must be something strange going on. When she thought of how Hu Qianyue was forced to engage with Feng Yulei, the matter was connected one by one.
However, Mo Xuetong did not expect Hu Qianyue to be so vicious. When a woman could be so cruel to herself, she was not an ordinary person. As for Ling Mingyan, she was also cruel to people. It was not a big deal for her to kill someone when she rode a horse on the way. However, when it came to being cruel to herself, she could not compare with Hu Qianyue at all.
It showed that Hu Qianyue was extremely dangerous. She could be ruthless to herself, so how could she show mercy to others?
In such weather, a bleak autumn night, she, a weak girl, dared to take a cold bath. And it seemed that she had taken it more than once. Those who could hold on were not ordinary people. Therefore, Mo Xuetong did not want Hu Qianyue to live in King Xuan’s Manor anymore, so she warned her.
Taking such a cold bath would cause serious harm to a girl, and it might affect her future pregnancy! Mo Xuetong thought that Hu Qianyue was supposed to understand its meaning, and she would grasp the right time to slowly get better.
“Yes, I will take care of our miss carefully,” Shiqing promised respectfully.
Now that she had already finished what she wanted to say and what she wanted to hint, Mo Xuetong stood up and walked out. She planned to tell the imperial physician to add more medicine for Hu Qianyue. She would definitely make Hu Qianyue wake up. Then, she would move to their new residence after a few days of rest. At that time, no matter how Hu Qianyue and Princess Caifeng fought or how King Yan’s Manor and King Ning’s Manor behind them fought, it would have nothing to do with King Xuan’s Manor.
As soon as Mo Xuetong arrived at the gate of the courtyard, she looked up and saw Crown Prince Xieyue walking over from the gate opposite. He was slightly stunned when he saw Mo Xuetong. After standing still, he greeted Mo Xuetong with a smile, “Consort Xuan!”
Mo Xuetong took a step back and curtsied. “Greetings, Crown Prince Xieyue.”
The two’s etiquette was quite standard. If it weren’t for the slight change in the eyes of Crown Prince Xieyue, almost everyone would think that they just met each other for the first time.
“If lovers keep their first vows and oaths for long, how could love be thrown as useless winter fans?”
Even though he had expected to meet Mo Xuetong here at this time, Crown Prince Xieyue was still stunned. Then, he was delighted. In the end, he was filled with sadness. She was already married and became King Xuan’s legal wife. How could he bear it? Her cold eyes landed on him, but almost made him fall for her.
There was a hint of heat in his eyes as he said, “Consort Xuan, please stand up. Can we…talk in private?”
He pointed to a set of stone table and stools under a big tree on the side. There was a kind of cautiousness in his words that he didn’t even notice.
“What’s the matter, Your Highness?” Mo Xuetong did not want to have too much to do with Crown Prince Xieyue. It was just a piece of cake for her to save him, and she did not want him to repay it. Crown Prince Xieyue disappeared without a trace as soon as he left the thumb ring. Since she knew that he was Crown Prince Xieyue, Mo Xuetong had asked Feng Yuran to return it to him.
She had heard that Crown Prince Xieyue had given it back to Feng Yuran, but it had nothing to do with her. It was men’s business. As such, she did not think that there was something between Crown Prince Xieyue and her.
Moreover, she also knew that her husband was not a generous person.
The bright light in the eyes of Crown Prince Xieyue dimmed, and then he explained, “Consort Xuan, I just want to ask about Miss Hu’s illness. I didn’t mean anything else.”
As he had said that, it would be a little unreasonable for Mo Xuetong to refuse!
Mo Xuetong nodded and followed Crown Prince Xieyue over. Mo Ye was the only one left by Mo Xuetong’s side. Xieyue also brought a personal bodyguard with him. The others were all left at the entrance of the courtyard, from where they could see them but could not hear their conversation. Furthermore, those people all lowered their heads.
Mo Xuetong sat down and asked without preamble, “Your Highness, what do you want to know?”
Crown Prince Xieyue collected his thoughts and sat down. After thinking for a while, he asked, “Consort Xuan, is there anything wrong with Hu Qianyue’s illness?” He did not ask the illness, the cause, or how long it would take, but only asked if there was something wrong with Hu Qianyue’s illness. Was it suspicious? Or was there a problem with it?
His words contained all the meaning in it.
Crown Prince Xieyue was indeed not an ordinary person.
“Your Highness, rest assured. Miss Hu’s illness is not serious and she suddenly caught a cold so she fell ill. It will take at least 10 days for her to recover. The imperial physician said that she cannot take another cold, or else, in the future, she might…” Mo Xuetong thought about it and decided to say everything the imperial physician had said.
As for how Crown Prince Xieyue understood it, it was not her concern!
She suddenly caught a cold?
Crown Prince Xieyue frowned and confirmed his thoughts. There was a slight smile on his face.
The imperial physician had been invited by King Xuan’s Manor. Crown Prince Xieyue had asked Princess Caifeng to come and take a look at Hu Qianyue. However, Princess Caifeng bore a grudge against Hu Qianyue, and she refused to come and had only sent a palace maid to ask. As a result, the palace maid got no information about the patient’s condition.
Although Crown Prince Xieyue came from the Southern Barbarian Lands with Hu Qianyue, it was not appropriate for him to break into the boudoir of a girl. Therefore, he came here specially to wait for Mo Xuetong. On the one hand, he had some selfish motives. On the other hand, it was also because of Hu Qianyue’s illness. It was his original intention to leave Hu Qianyue here and marry into the Qin Kingdom.
How could he not see through what the Empress meant when she sent Hu Qianyue to come with the envoys?
There were two girls of the candidate for the Third Prince’s legal wife. One of them was Hu Qianyue, the daughter of a general, and the other was Xu Ming’er, the daughter of the right prime minister. The two girls’ fathers were of equal status in the Southern Barbarian Lands. One held the military power, and the other was in charge of government affairs. It could be said that they were supplementary to each other. Unfortunately, both of their daughters liked the Third Prince, and neither of them would be willing to be a concubine.
This put the Empress in an embarrassing situation. She could not offend either of the two families. This was her helpless idea of it!
The Hu family controlled military power. In the Southern Barbarian Lands where people measured ability by their strength, sometimes military power was more threatening than political power. The Empress thought that she could make General Hu work for her just because she was from the Hu family. However, she had never thought that something would happen to Hu Qianyue and him. How could she, the aunt of Hu Qianyue, who sent Hu Qianyue to come with envoys, have nothing to do with it?
Crown Prince Xieyue totally believed that before they left this time, the Empress had promised Hu Qianyue something. Otherwise, Hu Qianyue would not have taken such a risk. It seemed that the Empress did not want Hu Qianyue to return to the Southern Barbarian Lands. Originally, Crown Prince Xieyue was worried that Hu Qianyue would not be able to find a way to delay and send the news to her family in the Southern Barbarian Lands.
Now it seemed that Hu Qianyue was really a smart person!
Luckily she was smart, so she must have understood the Empress’ intentions now. He could just wait and see General Hu’s response. The Empress and the Third Prince had plotted against him—try to assassinate him after he entered the Qin Kingdom. They had chosen to kill him when he was ill. Fortunately, he had a narrow escape. This time, he would see how the Empress would deal with the anger of the Hu family.
The Empress should even think her parents’ family as her intimates!
